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A'lo was trying his hardest. He hated everything that had happened, and hadn't really had time for himself. In fact, he wasn't even mildly concerned bout his on fears. He was more concerned about his twin sister and his newborn nephew. And about his dragon and pets. A part of him needed that, as it gave him focus. After all, as per usual, he felt determined that he HAD to present a strong front. He had to try and be a leader. Sadly, his leading skills were getting him in trouble with one of the few family members there.

Finally, his twin sister looked at him. "A'lo! I've had enough! I'm getting someone to look after the baby, and I don't want to see you for the rest of the day! We need to process this and we aren't going to if we're worrying about eachother or someone else!" she snapped at him and he sighed. His sister wasn't going to change her mind and thus he watched her walk off. A big part of him hoped that D'rick could get to her, not that he liked the kid. In fact, if it weren't for the fact that Artemis needed D'rick around to help with the newborn, and the fact that D'rick had recently lost his grandparents... well, A'lo was fairly certain he would have kept the two apart far better.

After a moment, he went walking off in a random direction. He needed someone to distract him. Maybe he could find K'so. He didn't want to think about what had happened to them, and quite honestly... people were likely to get him to think about things and get him to react. He just wasn't ready for that. So, he wandered off, doing his best to think about anything else. Although, that was easy enough since he was sulking over being banished from his sister for the rest of the day.

Things had fallen somewhat into a routine after the first few days. They bathed their dragons twice a day, mostly because the cool water soothed their tender hides. The rest of the time, they helped out around the community.

Unfortunately, K'so didn't have any particularly useful skills. He was studying to be a Vintner, and his hobby was stained glass. They hadn't found anything to brew with yet (except some herbs for teas), not that there wasn't a demand for it; and he didn't know how to blow glass, just take colored glass and make pretty things with it. So he tended to get stuck with boring, menial jobs: washing reed roots, cleaning knives/hatchets/cups, heating rocks for boiling water, fetching firewood, and so on. So whenever possible, he'd take off and get away from the community so he didn't have to do those chores. At least A'lo had something useful to do, helping H'lee in the tannery!

He had just deposited an armload of firewood when he saw A'lo slumping along, looking depressed. K'so looked around and saw that no one was looking at or for him, and he took the opportunity to skip out on chores. He jogged over to A'lo. "Hey, A'lo! Let's get out of here for a while, what do you say? If I have to scrub another root or gather another armload of firewood, I'm going to go insane."

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A'lo was feeling rather down in the dumps. He was trying to be helpful where he could. He really was. But, much like K'so he was a vintner and with next to nothing to brew, he didn't have much to go on. To make things worse, his hobby wasn't of much use either. He liked drawing, and he was decent at it. Or good. Depended on who's opinion one got. Regardless, he did some help where he could and was almost thankful that he wasn't considered the leader of his weyrling group. Mostly because it gave him the time to look after his sister and his nephew.

As it was, he was deep in thought about how he would spend his day when he heard his friend's voice. The sound of K'so caling to him actually had him jumping a bit before he nodded. "Sure. Arty banished me. I guess I was being a bit too over protective," he chuckled, trying to keep the fact that he hated now being there for his twin when she might need him. Mostly, it was his fear and concern of what this new planet held for them.

Of course, to make things more interesting, two little trouble makers flew over and landed on his shoulders, both chittering and chirping before he quieted them down. "Quiet, Zeus! Kesh! There's no need for all that wracket!" he grumbled at the two of them. He felt a little irritable at times with his bronze complaining off and on about how itchy his hide might feel. Usually this was responded to with a grumble that the dragon should go soak in the water some more.

K'so draped a comforting arm over his friend's shoulders. "Oh, who needs women anyway? At least you have a Craft and hobby that are useful. Let's get our dragons to take us across the river. Everyone else is discovering new plants and animals and we haven't had a chance to go looking."

K'so squawked and ducked when the two firelizards fluttered over and demanded perches on the shoulders he had been trying to comfort a moment before. He joined A'lo in shushing them; if someone noticed them, they'd get hauled off to do more chores. That was when K'so had a brilliant idea. Or at least, he thought it was brilliant.

"A'lo, you're a fair hand at drawing. We could make maps of the area! Our dragons' hides aren't as cracked as some others, so they can keep us up in the air a bit longer." Of course, he didn't consider the fact that, at the moment, they had nothing resembling paper or even hides worth drawing on. Or, for that matter, anything to draw with.

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He chuckled at his friend, accepting the comfort easily enough and shaking his head. "Perhaps, and sure, I could use some time away from this area. Especially since I've been banished," he teased.

He had to admit, he was thankful for the help in calming his brown and blue firelizards. The two of them each claiming a shoulder to perch upon and watching K'so. Finally, he sighed. "Don't you two have something better to do? Go.. uhm... play in the water? Or entertain Sakka, I'm sure she's just as bored," he suggested. Within moments both were gone to play with the green.

After a second, he gave his friend an odd look. Not many knew about his drawing, and K'so only knew because he had seen it first hand. "We could, but we don't exactly have anything to make them on. Unless you have an idea?"

Qanc, buddy, would you mind giving us a lift across the river? That way, Rikraketh can keep an eye on Artemis for A'lo without being too intrusive. The blue grumbled, but obliged under the condition that he would be allowed to explore with them.

"Qanc will give us a lift across the river and up the beach," K'so told his friend and shortly, they were sitting awkwardly in the blue's foreclaws, being that they couldn't sit on his neck safely (or comfortably).

K'so scowled when A'lo poked a hole in his brilliant cartography plan. "Well, we'll just have to find something. Maybe some slate and chalk."

They landed on the other side of the river, on a beach behind the rough hilly area that was visible from the camp. K'so grinned. "Well, that's one good thing that came out of all this - no more snow!" Qancith rumbled his agreement and approval, then promptly complained that he couldn't wallow in the sand because it would get into the cracks of his hide and make them hurt.

The blue weyrling stared up the beach. "Okay, I've seen pink flowers, but never a pink bush. What IS that?" he pointed at a pink-leaved bush with yellow and red flowers.

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A'lo nodded to his friend before he accepted the help across the river. It would be nice to get away from everything and spend some time around his friend. Truth be told, he had been so worried about his twin that he'd had little time to focus on other things... something he was now chastising himself for. ~I'm sorry, Rik. When we get back I'll work on trying to help everyone more instead of just focusing on Arty,~ he commented to his dragon.

The bronze gave a slight snort from his resting spot, not really doing a good job of keeping an eye on anything... considering his eyes were closed. ~Good.~ he grumbled at his rider for disrupting his nap before going to sleep and resting for a while.

A'lo chuckled at the dragon before shaking his head. He then glanced at his friend at the suggestion before making a face. He didn't much like the idea of trying to draw on a piece of rock. "If we find something like that, then I suppose... although it won't look all that grand," he grumped at the thought. Truthfully, while he didn't want anything to do with being a harper, he was still a bit of an artist at heart and the thought of drawing on rocks was not appealing. Slate or otherwise.

Honestly, he had to agree with the idea of there being less snow, although he didn't get much of a chance to respond before his friend was talking about pink bushes. He blinked. "A pink...?" he paused midway through his question as he found it himself and instantly started walking towards it. "I haven't the foggiest clue..."

K'so was caught off-guard when A'lo started walking toward the bush and had to jog a few strides to catch up. As they got closer to the bush, K'so realized that although the main body of the leaves were pink, the veins were green, as was the bark. The flowers were five-petaled and huge, a single one would have just fit cupped in both of his hands.

When they got to the plant and actually looked at the flowers, K'so revised his estimate that one would just fit in his hands: that would be if you only took the petals. The receptacle was the size of his fist. "Would you look at that?" he muttered to A'lo, gently holding the petals back to get a good look at the bulb just under the blossom. "I wonder what's in there..."

He pulled his knife out and carefully cut the stem a few inches below the bulge and tugged the flower free of the bush. In doing so, he smelled the powerfully sweet scent. "Haha, wow. Wonder if there's any oil to be had from these. The girls would love them!" he thrust the blossom at A'lo's face so he could smell it, too.

Qancith wuffled some of the flowers on the other side of the bush. Too sweet. I like nuts better, was his declaration on the scent. But it would smell nice on a pretty female...

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A'lo watched his friend, looking at the plant for the time being. He almost protested to K'so touching it, about ready to point out that they don't know if it is poisonous... However, before he could the other lad had cut off a flower from it and was inspecting it.

To make things even more interesting, he had the flower thrust in his face and yelped at first. Especially considering it touched his nose and prompted something that A'lo hadn't been planning on... a vision. He didn't have them often anymore, since learning to control it. Yet, this took him off guard and his breath caught in his chest as he watched the quick flashes of a scene that involved someone drinking what looked like an alcoholic beverage.

When the vision ended, he gasped slightly and took a step back, and lowered to grip his knees as he recovered. After a few breaths he stood up and looked at his friend, "We need to take some of that back to camp! Master Cheyk will love this!" he announced.

His dragon snorted at him.~Don't be so loud with that.~ he grumped having had his sleep disturbed.

K'so was alarmed when A'lo seemed to have a fit, going stiff for a moment before staggering back and bending over to balance against his knees. K'so dropped the flower into the sand and moved to start thumping his friend's back.

Qancith reared up and was prepared to carry them both in his claws back to camp to a Healer. But then A'lo straightened up and made a startling announcement. "By the first shell, A'lo, what are you talking about?" Qancith was now sitting on his haunches with his head cocked to one side, equally confused and curious.

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A'lo looked at his friend, realizing in that moment that K'so didn't know about his visions and had never seen him have one before. Instantly he got an apologetic look. HE would have to disclose something he hadn't thought about disclosing.

"Alright, before I tell you that, I suppose I should tell you something else. Artemis and I have... I think H'lee and Silvara called them gifts. Arty has something that they called farsight which allows her to find pretty much anything so long as she knows what she's looking for. Me? I have something called foresight which allows me to see the future. That's actually how I learned Arty was pregnant," he explained, "NOrmally I can control it so I don't get them. But, when I touched that flower I had one when I wasn't expecting it and that flower is going to turn out to be one hell of a brew! We need to gather them and take'em back to camp!" he explained.

K'so stared at A'lo, trying to wrap his head around the idea of being able to see into the future. "No one can see the future," he finally stated after several long moments. But apparently, his friend could.

"Well, that's all fine and dandy, but we didn't exactly bring any blankets or crates or anything to carry these back in. I didn't exactly expect to find something we'd want to harvest," the blue weyrling complained. And their coveralls wouldn't work because they were one-piece garments, and they had no underwear. Then he got a shrewd look. "Heeeey...I don't suppose your firelizards could carry a blanket to us, could they?"

He had, of course, forgotten that the firelizards couldn't go between, and they were a long ways from camp. Of course, Qancith could go back to get one, but then everyone would know about their discovery before they could bring it back.

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A'lo watched his friend after the explination before he shrugged. He knew it was something most people wouldn't understand. Lets face it, not many even knew about the gifts.. He certainly didn't prior to obtaining his.

However, as his friend commented about them not having anything to harvest them with, he paused for a moment. "Well, they wouldn't be able to go between with anything and I think it's kind of a far way for them to carry something. I could always have Rik bring us something," he suggested in return. Sure, it might be a little odd for those back at the "landing" to see a bronze carrying a blanket or a basket or whatever... but he figured it was the best idea as it wouldn't look much better if two firelizards were carrying them.

~Hey, Rik. I hate to wake you, but would you be so kind as to grab us a couple crates that we can use to carry this stuff back to camp?~ he requested of his beast.

He didn't get an answer right away, although, a few minutes later the bronze was seen flying overhead and landing carefully. The two crates held gently in his foreclaws. ~Will these work, Mine?~ he questioned.

~Yes, thank you,~ he commented, walking over to gently pat the beast and scratch his eyeridges (carefully). He earned a soft croon from the beast before Rik headed back to camp so that he could curl up and keep an eye on things there.

For the time being, K'so was extremely resistant to the idea that A'lo could see into the future. But the reaction his friend had to touching the flower simmered in the back of his mind.

"We probably shouldn't take all of them from any given bush," K'so pointed out, his farming heritage niggling its way forward. He was being very careful not to mention that he'd been raised on a grain farm back on Pern; he didn't relish the idea of being put to work plowing, sowing, weeding, and harvesting here! "Besides, there are plenty of these bushes around, and it doesn't look like they have the same peculiarity as those five-stemmed flowers."

So he took one crate and moved off to a different bush and selected half a dozen blossoms from it, and repeated the process on several other bushes until his crate was full. Qancith, meanwhile, grumbled the whole time about how warm the sand was and how he couldn't roll in it and how strange his rider and his friend were being.

Once his crate was full, K'so wandered back over to Qancith and set the crate down in the shade created by the blue's body and waited for A'lo to return. Meanwhile, he frowned, trying to figure out just how, exactly, they were going to get back to camp. You could walk over to those hills, then I wouldn't have to carry you as far, his blue pointed out slyly.

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A'lo nodded to his friend and took another of the crates and went about collecting the flowers. Lucky for him, he didn't have any more visions in the process, and he was quite happy about THAT. He didn't need to be predicting anything so soon after finding these flowers. Especially considering how he was fairly certain that those who hadn't been able to explain his gift to him might have a hard time accepting it.

~What do you think, Rik, will these make a good drink?~ he asked his bronze, hoping that his vision wasn't proven wrong. It would be just his luck that it would turn out false, but the only other vision he remembered strongly was that of his sister giving birth... of which case that one had been true.

~You said you seen it. Why would it not be true?~ Rikraketh asked, snorting at his rider.

A'lo could only chuckle and accept the comfort that the simple statement from the confused bronze gave him. After a quick thank you to his dragon, he continued his task before returning to A'lo. "Prolly should have told Rik to stay here with us while we did this," he chuckled with a shake of his head. After all, two dragons would make this far easier to do.

THe bronze snorted, he had JUST gotten comfortable and that was hard enough to do with his hide still being cracked. However, he got up and returned to them. ~You should play dragon poker in exchange for this,~ the bronze snorted at the boys as he landed.

A'lo chuckled, "We don't have cards, Rik. It would be rather difficult to play that," he shook his head.

K'so rolled his eyes. "Is he after you to play dragon poker again?" he laughed. Well, at least some things never changed.

"Alright, well, you're so certain that Master Cheyk will like these, let's get them back already!" He nestled his crate in Qancith's outstretched claw before making himself as comfortable as possible in the blue's other claw.

After they landed back at the camp, they sought out the Master Vintner. K'so was about to blurt out that they'd found these flowers and A'lo had a vision that they would be good for making some sort of beverage, then he realized how silly that sounded. So he revised his statement, "Master Cheyk, we were exploring over on the beach and we found these flowers. A'lo thought we might be able to make some sort of wine or something from them." He held out one of the blossoms from his crate for inspection.

The Master eyed the bulb under the blossom curiously, then took it and split it open. He cursed as the raw nectar spilled over his hands. He sniffed the nectar and licked a little off his fingers before nodding with approval. "I think you boys are right. Well, you found it, want to help brew the first batch?"

K'so grinned and nodded eagerly. Finally, something he could do! It would give him an excuse to avoid some of the chores he'd been put to, too!

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A'lo chuckled at his friend and nodded, "Of course. You would think by now he'd be more interested in other things... but nope, still dragon poker," he laughed before patting his beast and lifting his crate into one of Rik's claws before seating himself carefully in the other. Before long the bronze was carrying his rider back to camp.

When they arrived, Rikraketh carefully landed before lowering his rider to the ground and then handing over the crate of blossoms. "Thanks, Rik," he smiled at his beast before walking over and letting K'so explain. A part of him was happy that he didn't announce that the bronze weyrling had such a talent as seeing the future.. probably would have had a lot of people giving him funny looks.

Regardless, A'lo agreed to helping out with the batch just as quickly as his friend did. It would be fun to see just how good the stuff was, as he already knew it would be perfectly safe.

Qancith snorted his derision at the bronze over his obsession with dragon poker. Sometimes, it seemed like the blue acted more like a bronze than Rikraketh did! After all, the bronze should be figuring out how to take over the world, shouldn't he? That's what Qancith did all the time... K'so rolled his eyes at his dragon's thoughts, but didn't pass them on. After all, it was an old argument among the four of them.

After the boys readily agreed to brewing the first batch of whatever could be made with this stuff, the Master smirked. "So, how are you going to brew it?"

K'so blinked, surprised. "Um...well, we need to be able to boil this with water. I don't think we want to use the hot rock trick everyone's been using, though, do we? So we'd need a real pot. And a carboy and airlock..." He frowned, realizing that they might have a problem: the Smiths and Glassmiths were still trying to fashion large containers like pots and pitchers. "Guess we need to make the pot, the carboy, and the airlock, first, huh?" he sighed.

"Or commission them. Go check with the Carpenters, the Smiths, and the Glassmiths. They've had a week to come up with things."